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After seeing Kathryn her wonderful and amazing performance as the mother trying to hold her whole family together in “The Last Seder” I knew we had to have her tell her story to you, our dear viewers. That actress that you all know from… that thing…! Enjoy!
Don’t forget to change the settings to view this at 1080p!
For more info the this amazing actress go to www.kathrynkates.com
www.facebook.com/kathrynkates
Shifting focus slightly we got to sit down for an Interview with Bernie Furshpan Owner/Managing Partner of the Metropolitan Room about the amazing changes and additions he has made since taking over almost a year ago. Plus, we answer the burning question, Why the Chandeliers?
We also have a scoop: Your 2 Drink minimum at the Metropolitan Room will soon include Fine Kosher wines suitable for the most discerning pallets! Kosher Wine!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
NOW IN PREVIEWS
AT THE 47TH STREET THEATRE
OPENING SET FOR SEPTEMBER 6TH
After a three-year absence, Gerard Alessandrini’s FORBIDDEN BROADWAY, one of NYC’s best-loved and highly anticipated productions, returns to the 47th Street Theatre (304 West 47th Street – just west of Eighth Avenue) with a brand new edition, FORBIDDEN BROADWAY: ALIVE AND KICKING. The show is now in previews, with an opening set for Thursday, September 6th. FORBIDDEN BROADWAY; ALIVE AND KICKING will play a limited engagement through January 6, 2013. This production will mark FORBIDDEN BROADWAY’s 30th Anniversary, as well as its 21st edition.
FORBIDDEN BROADWAY; ALIVE AND KICKING returns with Gerard Alessandrini’s take on Porgy and Bess, Once, Evita, Anything Goes, Follies, Spiderman, Newsies, Book of Mormon, Nice Work if You Can Get It, and Death of a Salesman, among others.
Featured in the cast are Natalie Charlé Ellis, Scott Richard Foster, Jenny Lee Stern and Marcus Stevens.
In a statement, Gerard Alessandrini said: “Over the past three years, I sat through show after show, with no outlet at all. Finally, I couldn’t take it any more. Now I have 3 years worth of pent-up parodies, and am blessed with a season that has practically written itself. We were able to get our favorite Forbidden Broadway theatre again, but only for a limited chunk of time. But that should more than long enough to say everything we have to say, and then come back to New York again, from time to time. ”
This edition is created and written by Gerard Alessandrini, and directed by Mr. Alessandrini and Phillip George, with musical direction by David Caldwell. Costumes are designed by Philip Heckman, with set design by Jesse Poleshuck, lighting design by Mark T. Simpson and wig design by Bobbie Cliffton Zlotnik. The show is produced by John Freedson, Harriet Yellin and Paul Bartz, in association with Paul G. Rice, Carol Ostrow, Paxton Quigley, Robert Driemeyer, Jamie DeRoy, Lawrence Poster and Tweiss Productions.
FORBIDDEN BROADWAY has been an unstoppable force in theatre since 1982, when Gerard Alessandrini created the first edition that lampooned the Broadway shows and stars of the day. It has been a favorite among theatre lovers, as well as the Broadway stars themselves (Carol Channing, Angela Lansbury, Patti Lupone, Stephen Sondheim, Raul Esparza, Tyne Daly, Christine Ebersole, Bernadette Peters, Whoopi Goldberg Cameron Mackintosh, and Hal Prince, to name a few) who often stop by to laugh at themselves alongside the public. FORBIDDEN BROADWAY has won numerous awards in its history including a Special Tony® Award as well as Drama Critics’ Circle, Obie, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League, and Lucille Lortel Awards. A theatrical institution, FORBIDDEN BROADWAY has received national and international notoriety having performed in over 200 US cities as well as engagements in Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney and London’s Meniere Chocolate Factory.
GERARD ALESSANDRINI (Creator, Writer & Director) is best known for writing and directing all the editions of Forbidden Broadway and Forbidden Hollywood in New York, Los Angeles, and London and around the world. He was also a member of the original cast of Forbidden Broadway. Gerard is from Needham, Massachusetts and the Boston area, where he graduated from the Boston Conservatory of Music. In 1982, he created Forbidden Broadway, which has spawned 18 editions, 8 cast albums and a record-breaking 30-year- run in New York. Television credits include writing comedy specials for Bob Hope and Angela Lansbury on NBC, Carol Burnett on CBS and “Masterpiece Tonight,” a satirical revue saluting “Masterpiece Theatre” on PBS. He can be heard on four of the eight FB cast albums and on the soundtracks of Disney’s Aladdin & Pocahontas. Directing credits include many corporate industrials and regional musicals, including a production of Maury Yeston’s musical In the Beginning. Gerard also co-directed a revival of Irving Berlin’s final musical Mr. President, which he updated & “politically corrected.” Gerard is the recipient of an Obie Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award, two Lucille Lortel Awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Drama League and three Drama Desk Awards for Best Lyrics for Forbidden Broadway. He received the 2006 Tony® Honor for Excellence in the Theatre. Most recently his Madame X: The Musical won acclaim and multiple awards at the 2011 NYMF Festival; his holiday extravaganza The Nutcracker and I, written with Peter Brash was a smash at the George Street Theatre, and he is currently collaborating with Paul Mazursky and Bill Conti on a musical version of Mr. Mazursky’s film Moon Over Parador.
PHILLIP GEORGE (Director) is a director and writer. As director Off-Broadway: Shout!, The Road to Qatar (York Theatre Company), Forbidden Broadway Goes to Rehab, Forbidden Broadway SVU, Forbidden Hollywood, Whoop-Dee-Doo (Drama Desk Award, Best Musical Revue), Forbidden Broadway Twentieth Anniversary Edition, and many other editions of this infamous revue series. Along the way, Forbidden Broadway was also honored with a special Tony for long time achievement. He has also directed musicals in London, Los Angeles, Toronto, Boston, etc., with Forbidden Broadway transferring to the West End. With his longstanding collaborator Peter Morris, Phill also wrote Frankly Scarlett, which played at the Kings Head Theatre in London. In addition to his directing assignments, he is also one of the writers of High Hair and Jalapenos, which skewers all things Texas and is currently preparing for the fifth edition. When not directing and writing, Phill is on the staff of the American Musical and Dramatics Academy where he passes on some of the wisdom he acquired along the way.
DAVID CALDWELL (Music Director) has been the music director of Forbidden Broadway since 2004. He composed music and lyrics for All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten and Uh-Oh Here Comes Christmas, both based on the writing of Robert Fulghum. He also composed music for Fulghum’s novel Third Wish. He conducted the American premiere of Stephen Schwartz’s Children of Eden. He recently music-directed two shows in China, with Inner Mongolian authors and casts. He arranged and orchestrated Marvin Hamlisch’s new song “I’m Really Dancing” for Career Transitions for Dancers’ 25th Anniversary Gala, featuring Angela Lansbury, Chita Rivera and Bebe Neuwirth. His new show, Gotta Getta Girl, was featured in the NYMF Reading Series. He is interviewed at length in Oliver Sacks’ book about music and the brain, Musicophilia.
PHILIP HECKMAN (Costume Designer) is an Emmy-nominated costume designer for daytime television’s As the World Turns. He recently completed the New York run of My Big Gay Italian Wedding. Other Off-Broadway credits include SHOUT! The Mod Musical, Go-Go Beach, We’re Still Hot!, Are You There God? It’s Me, Ann-Margret, Marry Me A Little, I Love My Wife, Enough About Me and The Very Worst of Varla Jean Merman (Garland Award). Television credits include commercials, promos and shorts for LOGO, MTV, and VH1. Philip has also worked on several Broadway productions as a costume design assistant including Born Yesterday, The Boy From Oz, Chicago, Cry Baby, Democracy, Flower Drum Song, Follies, Frost/Nixon, The Graduate, Kiss Me Kate, Mamma Mia, Sideshow and Spamalot. Philip received his MFA in costume design from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.
The playing schedule for FORBIDDEN BROADWAY: ALIVE AND KICKING is as follows: Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 7:30pm, with matinees on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2pm. Tickets are $29-$79. Premium Tickets are available at $110.Tickets can be purchased by calling Telecharge at (212) 239-6200 or by visiting www.telecharge.com
I was SO happy to be able to sit down with “America’s Gaysian Sweetheart” Alec Mapa after his delightful one man show, “Baby Daddy” currently playing at The Laurie Beechman Theatre. Here is the video interview:
GO SEE THIS SHOW!!! Enjoy!
For more information about this show, visit ALEC MAPA: BABY DADDY”.
Buy tickets HERE.
• “Smart, hilarious and funny.” — Ellen DeGeneres
• “Alec Mapa is a freak. No one should be this talented” — Variety
• “Truly insightful, hilarious, pungent and persuasive… See it! It says something important about how we live today.” — Edge
• “Both funny and poignant” — BistroAwards.com
• “By turns filthy, fierce and fabulous, Mapa’s seemingly mundane anecdotes are an outrageous delight… utterly divine.” — Next Magazine
After selling out a short run in February, ALEC MAPA (Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty, The View, RuPaul’s Drag Race, The Gossip Queens, Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure) returns to New York with his critically acclaimed and wildly popular new show ALEC MAPA: BABY DADDY. It runs July 19 – 29, Thursday – Sunday at 7:30pm. The Laurie Beechman Theater is located inside West Bank Cafe at 407 West 42nd Street — at Ninth Avenue, accessible from the A,C,E,N,R,V,F,1,2 & 3 trains at 42nd Street). Tickets are $22 (plus a $15 food/drink minimum). To purchase tickets call 212-352-3101 or visitwww.SpinCycleNYC.com.
Theater Review: “The Road To Qatar”
The York Theater – Feb 4, 2011 – 8:00 pm
by Elli – The King Of Broadway
Did you hear the one about the two, short, Jewish, Musical Theater writers who get an email from an Emir in Qatar (Dubai) who commissions them to travel there and write a brand new musical to inaugurate the new sports arena? Sounds crazy, no? Well it happened. Imagine a real-life version of a “Road To” movie: “Two Short Jews on the Road To Qatar” (sung to the tune of “Two Lost Souls” from Damn Yankees).
As a kid I was a huge TV watcher (okay, so that never went away), but back then I would often fake being sick just to stay home and watch something I liked on Channel 9’s Million Dollar Movie. Among my favorite guilty pleasures (and I do mean guilty because I was totally faking it), were the Bing Crosby/Bob Hope “Road” flicks. “The Road to Morocco” is among my all-time favorites. So you can understand how happy I was to hear that Stephen Cole and David Krane had turned their real-life Road story into a musical.
“The Road To Qatar” at the York Theatre is a perfect tribute to those “Road” pictures that I love. It is an (almost) true story told and sung by a talented 5 member cast. James Beaman (Spamalot, National Tour) as Michael and Keith Gerchak (Finding Nemo, The Musical) as Jeffrey, portray the talented authors genuinely, if not lovingly. Having had the opportunity to work with their real-life counterparts as they rehearsed the show, their performances are a tribute to their creators. They each add their own perfect, comedic timing to make the two leads sufficiently nebbishy and lovable at the same time. Bill Nolte (La Cage aux Folles) as Mansour – well, just look at those eyes and you’ll fall out of your chair laughing – embodies the sleazy, desert producer out for a buck and a hustle as he carries out his Boss’s every whim. Sarah Stiles (Avenue Q) shines as Nazirah, hired as a translator and go between aiming to please her boss, Mansour, as well as the writers. The very funny Bruce Warren (The Wizard of Oz) is frightening and delightful as Farid, the very serious nephew of the Emir hired to oversee his uncle’s investment. Mr. Warren also gets to display his comedic skills as Claudio, the foppish, flamboyant, Italian director brought in to stage the musical. While speaking of directors, the very creative, playful and talented direction of Phillip George (Forbidden Broadway), makes us feel as if we have been transported into the world of these “two, short, Jews” and their seemingly impossible task to please the Emir.
The opening number Opening serves as an introduction to the story setting the stage for the events to follow. Must Be is the list of rules of what the Musical must contain, while Good Things Come In Threes is the author’s rebuttal to the rules. Doesn’t Matter is a delightful dream sequence where the boys dream about what would happen if their hosts realized that their hires are Jewish. 15 of the 16 songs are original to this show while only one song, Aspire, a great closing number, was actually in the real musical that Messrs. Cole and Krane wrote.
All the shows tunes are enjoyably done in true musical theatre style and are fun to hear and see thanks to the delightful choreography by Bob Richard (Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!), which is spot on for the confines of a small stage. The excellent musical direction/Piano is provided by David Caldwell (Children of Eden) and his wonderful orchestra, Mike Kuenne (Accoustic and Electric Bass), Perry Cavari (Drums/Percussion), Steve Greenfield (Reed One: Flute, Clarinet, Soprano Sax) and Rick Walburn (Reed Two: Flute, Clarinet, Alto Sax).
It is refreshing to see new theater work (as opposed to a musical remake of some B-flick). Unfortunately, this is a limited run and many shows are close to. or completely, sold out. I strongly suggest that you go immediately to the York Theatre’s website and reserve your tickets and enjoy your trip down “The Road To Qatar”.
***
The York Theatre Company (James Morgan, Producing Artistic Director) presents the Off-Broadway premiere of the new true musical comedy, The Road to Qatar!, featuring book and lyrics by Stephen Cole and music by David Krane, with direction by Phillip George (Forbidden Broadway), choreography by Bob Richard (Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!) and musical direction by David Caldwell (Children of Eden). The five- member cast features James Beaman (Spamalot, National Tour) as Michael, Keith Gerchak (Finding Nemo, The Musical) as Jeffrey, Bill Nolte (La Cage aux Folles) as Mansour, Sarah Stiles (Avenue Q) as Nazirah, and Bruce Warren (The Wizard of Oz) as Farid.
Performances began Tuesday, January 25, 2011 and continue through Sunday, February 27, 2011 at The Theatre at Saint Peter’s (619 Lexington Avenue, entrance on East 54th Street).
The Road to Qatar is a new true musical comedy about two American musical theatre writers commissioned to do the impossible: write a larger-than-life Broadway-style mega-musical for the Emir of Qatar that includes 100 actors, 40 camels, 17 fire-eating jugglers and Muhammad Ali. Surprises abound as the quirky self-professed “short Jewish writers” leave New York and begin trotting the globe in their own version of a madcap Bob Hope/Bing Crosby adventure.
The creative team also includes Michael Bottari & Ronald Case (Set, Costume & Puppet Design), Martin Vreeland (Lights), and Chris Kateff (Projections). The Production Stage Manager is Sarah Hall. The musical is produced by special arrangement with Paul Burchett in association with Coltrane, LLC.
The creative team also includes Michael Bottari & Ronald Case (Set, Costume & Puppet Design), Martin Vreeland (Lights), and Chris Kateff (Projections). The Production Stage Manager is Sarah Hall. The musical is produced by special arrangement with Paul Burchett in association with Coltrane, LLC.
The Road to Qatar will play the following performance schedule: Tuesdays at 7:00 p.m., Wednesdays- Fridays at 8:00 p.m., Saturdays at 2:30 p.m. & 8:00 p.m., with special Sunday matinee performances on February 13th, 20th & 27th at 2:30pm.
Please visit www.yorktheatre.org for the complete performance schedule. Tickets are $67.50 and are available online at www.yorktheatre.org, by calling (212) 935-5820, or in person at the box office at the York Theatre at Saint Peter’s (enter on 54th Street, just East of Lexington), and are currently on sale through Sunday, February 27th. Running time is approximately 90 minutes.
For complete info about the reviewer, please go to www.thekingofbroadway.com and follow on twitter/tkob